Senate Armed Services Committee endorses Chuck Hagel 14-11

Splitting along party lines, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 14-11 on Tuesday to advance Chuck Hagel’s nomination after a tense two-hour meeting that closed the latest chapter in a weeks-long political saga.

The nomination heads to the full Senate, where Republicans may demand a 60-vote threshold in a vote expected later this week.

Text Size

Hagel nomination clears committee

Democrats and Republicans broke sharply over whether the former Republican senator from Nebraska is the right man to run the Pentagon. Supporters cited Hagel’s experience as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam and his service in the Senate and elsewhere as reasons he should succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta while opponents stuck with their criticisms about Hagel’s past positions on Iran, Israel and the defense budget.

A few Republicans kept up their bid to stop Hagel’s nomination from moving ahead, arguing he has kept some information from the committee, but Democrats insisted that he has satisfied its disclosure requirements and accused Republicans of tarring Hagel unfairly.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had "gone over the line" and "basically ... impugned the patriotism of the nominee” by pointing out that the Iranian Foreign Ministry had praised Hagel.

The top Republican on the committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), shot back later in defense of Cruz, "You don't get any cozier than that."

Former ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) interjected soon thereafter with a message for his colleagues: "Sen. Hagel is an honorable man who has served his country, and no one on this committee at any time should impugn his character," McCain said.

But for most of the meeting, senators referred to Hagel’s late January confirmation hearing. McCain slammed Hagel’s performance as “the worst I have seen of any nomination for office” and said it was “disturbing” that Hagel would not directly respond to his question about whether the Iraq surge was a success. Democrats said the criticism of Hagel’s day in the spotlight was unfair, and they defended his description of a policy of “containment” for a nuclear Iran — which the White House does not support – as a simple slip of the tongue.

Apart from the politics involved with Hagel himself, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) had warned senators that rejecting him would endanger the Pentagon at a time it could ill afford another complication.